


Dream of Fire

by Alarnia



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Dreams, Fate & Destiny, Fire, Gen, Nightmares, Pre-Canon, Prophetic Dreams, un-beta'd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 12:27:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17386463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alarnia/pseuds/Alarnia
Summary: Caduceus dreams of the woods that are his prison, and the flames that break him free.





	Dream of Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Got some ideas around Caduceus' and Caleb's relationship being 'fate' and 'destiny' and then I got the idea of caleb setting things on fire and hey woods are flammable! lets write a drabble!
> 
> I literally wrote this in less than an hour so please have mercy.

Caduceus has been waiting for a sign for months.

 

His family’s gone. He's not received a single word from them in ages... and the Savalier’s curse only grows stronger. Meanwhile Caduceus’ little plot of land is growing smaller… and smaller…

 

He tries to enjoy his time for what it is, enjoys his tea and tends to his graves and the lands still blessed by the Wild Mother… but every time Caduceus places a new row of spiked, iron fences around his shrinking plot he can’t help but feel like something caged. Like he’s being slowly cornered.

 

The forest is not safe enough to be traveled alone. He can not simply abandon his homeland. But the duty chafes at him. The thorny vines closing in around him makes his hackles rise.

 

But he needs a sign.

 

He spends most of his days in sleep or meditation in search of one. He stops eating. The flesh melts off his bones. He can’t keep it up.

 

Eventually… the stress takes hold.

 

He lays in bed one night, feverish, shaking. It is dangerous for someone to take ill when they live alone like this, and the timing is unfortunate. Caduceus can barely move, let alone stand long enough to care for his needs.

 

So he dreams as his body burns away.

 

He is lost in the forest. Dark and unwelcoming. Running, there is something prowling after him, just out of eyesight. But he can hear it growling, hear the hungry slither of a tongue over teeth. Great plodding footsteps dog after him as he stumbles through the bramble and hostile woodlands. Branches reach down and tear at his clothing. Thorny vines bite his skin. An upturned root snags his ankle, and he collapses.

 

Fear and loneliness swirl and reverberate inside his skull with such ferocity that it brings tears to his eyes.

 

Burning. Burning. Burning away into nothing. He hears a man and woman screaming in the distance, and heartbroken laughter. Caduceus curls up; clutches at his head.

 

The heat builds, and Caduceus is engulfed by the flames. The Savalier wood is an immolation. The souls of the forest are screaming. What about his garden? His home? What will become of it?

 

The ash and ember blind his senses. It hurts. Is he going to die like this? Alone? No family? Nothing?

 

It is nature’s way to be fickle. The forest will return. Fire is cleansing, and in the ash new life will find purchase... But it does not care to spare Caduceus, or the land given to his family by Melora herself.

 

For a moment, Caduceus accepts this.

 

But as the minutes pass and the heat intensifies, He finds that he still clings to life.

 

He looks out through the blinding heat of the burning woods around him and sees a figure standing over him. With eyes like the sky and hair of copper. Behind him is a path, a break in the trees… the way out.

 

He reaches and the figure mirrors the gesture, their hands clasping. It’s fingers are caked in ash and blood.

 

“Go with them.” It says, though Caduceus can not see their mouth. Wreathed in flame and shadow as they were, it was hard to make out any features of his savior at all.

 

The tug is strong, Caduceus feels himself pulled up and away- and falls out of his bed.

 

His fever has broken. Shakily, he sets about making tea. 

 

He has time to think, to breathe, and collect himself… but it is not long after this that he finds his garden full of unexpected guests. Five of them… and one with curiously red hair and vibrant blue eyes.


End file.
